July 8, 2011 in Outdoors, Idaho, Region

Idaho wolf hunting plan: No limit

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Betsy Russell photo

Idaho Fish & Game Director Virgil Moore, left, and big game manager Jon Rachael, right, announce Idaho’s proposal for a fall wolf hunt.
(Full-size photo)

BOISE - Idaho is planning a fall wolf hunt with no overall limit - and no limits in four zones, the Panhandle, Lolo, Selway and Middle Fork zones - because of “documented impacts to elk and other prey species in those zones,” Idaho Fish and Game officials announced today. It’s also planning a trapping season for wolves in the fall, in an effort to reduce the wolf population by more than the 188 animals taken in the state’s first public wolf hunt during the 2009-2010 season.

Virgil Moore, state Fish & Game director, said the plan is consistent with hunting regulations for other animals. “We don’t have harvest limits on most of our other species,” he said, instead using a “general-season approach” for management. Said Jon Rachael, big game manager for F&G, “This is very consistent with the approach we take for black bears and mountain lions. We’ve done that for a long, long time.”

The proposal also would allow hunters to get two wolf tags per calendar year, rather than one.

Hunters who purchased wolf tags during the last hunt had a low success rate, with less than 1 percent killing a wolf. Wolves are elusive and hard to hunt, wildlife managers said.

“Seeing wolf tracks or scat, hearing wolves howl or even catching a fleeting glimpse of a wolf is not the same thing as having the opportunity to take a wolf,” Rachael said.

The lack of a statewide wolf quota concerns Suzanne Stone with Defenders of Willdlife. Idaho has an estimated 1,000 wolves, compared to thousands each of cougars, black bears, elk and coyotes., she noted.

“Wolves play a very valuable role in nature and I think that is what is being overlooked in this rush to reduce their numbers to such low numbers,” Stone said.

Wolves cull weak and diseased animals from deer and elk herds, and prevent herds from overgrazing streamside riparian areas, she said. The Northern Rockies region needs several thousand wolves for the species to fulfill their intended role in the ecosystem and allow for a healthy genetic pool, Stone said.

Fish & Game is launching a survey of hunters and the public about the proposal, and it will be up for a vote by the Idaho Fish & Game Commission at its July 27-28 meeting in Salmon. Moore said under the plan, wolf harvests would have to be reported within 72 hours, and if the number killed becomes excessive, hunting can be cut off in a particular zone. However, he said he doesn’t expect that to happen.

The department’s goal is to reduce the number of wolves in Idaho, well staying well above the minimum federal recovery level of at least 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs statewide, though the department’s not setting a specific number for the reduction.

The proposed 10-week trapping season from December to mid-February will run in all or some of the Panhandle, Lolo, Dworshak-Elk City, Selway and Middle Fork zones, and will include an annual bag limit of five wolves by trapping.

16 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  oneanddone on July 08 at 11:28 a.m.

  So typical of the Idaho legislature head-up-the-wazoo view of the world. Deer cause millions in damage to crops, cars, and home owner flora. Wolves cause nearly zero. I don’t have any problem having no limit on any wild animal but if the gov’t is going to stick it’s nose where it doesn’t belong - do it for deer. All deer are just large brown rats.

• 

  PhiltheBibliophil on July 08 at 11:48 a.m.

  oneandone - have you ever eaten a Wolf? You oughta try the Deer Meat - if cooked right its delicious! Wolves were eradicated in the lower 48 for a reason. And that was back when there was a heck of alot more land for them to roam. Now when they bump against Man everywhere we blame the Wolf, when a bunch of do-gooder Enviro’s caused this in the first place. Since man is going nowhere, the solution to the devastation these predator animals cause is - kill ‘em all, or ship ‘em to Alaska, Sarah loves to shoot ‘em from airplanes!

• 

  maria on July 08 at 11:58 a.m.

  And so the blood bath is set to begin.

• 

  MrBloggy on July 08 at 12:27 p.m.

  My spirit-brother
  the native Idaho
  Gray Wolf
  majestic and fierce
  in his love of nature
  is saddened by the blood
  hunger of fat white men
  riding ATVs and drinking
  Schmidt beer
  He knows this will fail
  as today’s men
  are pale shadows
  of old
  He will continue to
  defend mankind
  from angry
  marauding ungulates
  seized with furious
  desire to antler
  innocent children
  to death
  The native Idaho Gray Wolf
  is our friend, and if he
  eats your stupid Golden
  Retriever,
  Rejoice! You have fed
  your brother!

• 

  otimus on July 08 at 12:27 p.m.

  Well since I was taught to eat what you kill, I dont think i will be killing a wolf.

• 

  ><(((*> on July 08 at 1:06 p.m.

  PhiltheBibliophil on July 08 at 11:48 a.m.

  “Wolves were eradicated in the lower 48 for a reason.”

  i think you’re just trying to convince yourself….

  “when a bunch of do-gooder Enviro’s caused this in the first place. Since man is going nowhere, the solution to the devastation these predator animals cause ”

  i think you mean “the devastation these predator HUMANS cause.”

• 

  maria on July 08 at 1:13 p.m.

  Dogs at night

  People had a fire. Wolf had no fire.
  Wolf and dog were friends. Wolf said
  to dog, “Go steal a spark from the people”
  Dog went to see the people. They fed him
  and he forgot to steal the spark.
  That’s all.
  
  -Coeur d’Alene

  At night the sound of dogs
  howling
  is an admonition to men.

  Secretly, solitarily
  they’re sorry they’d forgotten
  to bring back the spark to Wolf

  that they’d betrayed his trust-
  and wish somehow
  he would come back again

  and raise hell with
  them all like before.

  That they’d forgotten how the moon
  tricks its way through a swaying
  net of pines; that

  getting fed every day
  isn’t all.
  
  -from Paw Tracks, Tim McNulty

• 

  dataxman on July 08 at 2:42 p.m.

  Just because an animal was part of a culture’s stone-aged superstition doesn’t mean we should allow it to breed beyond the lands ability to support it…

• 

  force_vector on July 08 at 2:44 p.m.

  “Moore said under the plan, wolf harvests would have to be reported within 72 hours, and if the number killed becomes excessive, hunting can be cut off in a particular zone. However, he said he DOESN’T expect that to happen. ”

  That’s because wolves are very good at avoiding detection and are incredibly smart. While I don’t necessarily agree with wolf hunting, and would never try it myself, I’ll wait for the actual numbers to come in before calling it a “blood bath”. My guess is that there will be a lot of people who end up going home empty handed.

• 

  MrNatural on July 08 at 2:49 p.m.

  This man vs. wolf issue may still take a bit of time to reach equilibrium…and then again given the moronic stupidity of the species this may never happen………… ;-)

  “If you call one wolf you invite the pack”…Bulgarian Proverb

• 

  mtharves on July 08 at 6:36 p.m.

  If you haven’t already, please read “Thinking Like a Mountain” by Aldo Leopold. It is one of his best essays, written in the “20-30’s” by a guy working for the Forest Service and one of the best environmental writers ever. He understood the value of wolves.

• 

  wolfangel on July 09 at 9:09 a.m.

  This whole wolf killing attitude in Idaho as well as other parts of the west is driven by hunters & ranchers and their minions….there is NO scientific basis for this to be happening. Gov. Otter of Idaho is a well known wolf hater and has expressed over and over how he wants to be the first to kill a wolf. Wolves keep the ungulates in check…but hunters are angry about this because that means less elk and deer for them to kill…what is wrong with this picture…most of the hunters are not starving and need to kill to eat…they are killing for the sport of it and to get a big head to hang on their wall….this is a very sad statement about humans in general and shows that our species is going backward in their development. The recent delisting of wolves was a political maneuver manifested by politicians pandering to the ranching, hunting community and their supporters…it was not based upon anything scientific and Fish and Wildlife are no more than an arm of that group…they do not follow any kind of scientific evidence to kill predators…but instead are, as are the politicians, pandering to the special interest groups. Wolves are an integral part of the balance of nature. Humans should leave the animals alone, they will achieve their own balance. I am sick and tired of our political officials making laws to suit their own purposes and ignoring the vast majority of Americans who do not want the bloodshed that will ensue once the idiots of Idaho, WY & Montana go out in force to kill wolves….it is very sad to me what this country has become…the hatred expressed by so many of the anti-wolf factions is astounding!!!

• 

  HarleyD on July 11 at 10:35 a.m.

  The sole purpose of this action is for hunters to eliminate their competition

• 

  JRock on July 12 at 9:41 a.m.

  There are far too many people in this nation that have no idea about game management and the successes that america has had in the past 80 years. The people who live in the affected states should and do have the say on what happens in their home states. Not the long arm of the federal government or the anti-hunters. The anti-hunters here in Idaho are less than 3% of the population. Sportsmen who use their hard earned money are the true conservationists supporting the wildlife to make sure there are not only predators & prey to view but to harvest for future generations. As long as man has been here on earth so has the wolf and all of their prey, so if your view is that man should leave wolves alone and everything will balance out, well you’re obviously mislead. Man has always had influences on wolves making it ‘natural’, having no influence on wolves and allowing them to go unmanaged is ‘un-natural’ and thus not a real balance. Wolves here in Idaho have lost much of their fear & have become very bold, visiting front porches, killing family pets, devastating livestock, following & surrounding hikers. The people of Idaho will not stand for this unmanaged and deadly canine any longer. No, (far from endangered) wolves will not be exterminated, but they will be kept in check and their natural fear of humans restored. I know this won’t sit well with some people, but this IS the way it IS and the upcoming hunts WILL happen. I just hope you can educate yourselves on game management instead of living in an emotional state of denial.

• 

  nowolves on July 13 at 6:53 p.m.

  JRock….. nice post! Your right on the money!

• 

  tweetypi_56 on July 22 at 6:16 a.m.

  I am appalled at this!!!. Why don’t everyone just go out and start shooting everything in sight??? What do you plan to do with it when you kill it?? You can’t eat it!!! Seems like people are bent on destroying every living creature on earth.It’s just killing for the fun of it.If people would stop crowding the animals out of THEIR territory,they wouldn’t be coming in ours! I know some of you don’t like wolves but these are one of the most beautiful creatures on earth. I had the opportunity to interact with some of them and it was AWESOME!!!
  Mr.Moore-PLEASE DO NOT GO AHEAD WITH THIS.!!
  And to the Govenor of Idaho—PLEASE PROTECT THESE BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS. DON’T JUST SIT BY AND LET THIS SENSELESS SLAUGHTER HAPPEN!!!!!!!!
  Thank you very much.